Chile opens bidding for new wheeled armored vehicles

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  August 3, 2020 | International, Land

  After COVID delay, high-stakes test of Army’s critical battle command system underway

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — A high-stakes test of the U.S. Army's battle command system expected to control air and missile defense shooters and sensors is underway following a delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kenn Todorov, Northrop Grumman's vice president for missile defense solutions, told Defense News in a recent interview. Northrop Grumman is the developer of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, or IBCS. The system's development and its fielding is the Army's top air and missile defense modernization priority. IBCS has had a long and marred history due to struggles in previous tests as well as increasing requirements causing a plethora of challenging software changes. But recent successful tests over the past several years have resulted in a deeper confidence of the system, and the Army has been racing to move through a limited-user test, or LUT, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, to reach a production decision. The test will decide the fate of the program. The program was supposed to reach initial operational capability last year, but those plans slipped in 2017 by four years following software problems in the system's first LUT in 2016. IBCS was originally meant to serve as the command-and-control system for the Army's future Integrated Air and Missile Defense system against regional ballistic missile threats, but now the service sees a much more expansive future for the technology, with plans to tie it to sensors and shooters capable of defeating complex threats like unmanned aircraft. According to Todorov, the Army and Northrop had to take a “COVID pause” to ensure the safety of all of the participants of the LUT before proceeding. Originally, the IBCS test was scheduled for earlier in the spring as COVID-19 was spreading quickly across the United States. Precautions are taken to ensure participants stay healthy, Todorov said, but he doesn't believe those measures will sacrifice any of the rigor within the test. The LUT will have a broader range of threats to counter than the original, from ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and air-breathing threats, and this test will include the integration of some joint air assets, Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, the head of the Army's missile defense modernization effort, told Defense News last year. Northrop took the extra time from the pause caused by the pandemic to improve the system's readiness and develop policies and procedures to ensure employees take precautions to avoid the spread of the virus during the LUT. The test is expected to go through the month of August and include endurance runs as well as two major flight tests. In Northrop's second-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings call on July 30, CEO Kathy Warden said that “successful completion of this [engineering and manufacturing development] milestone will support IBCS production, deployment and fielding to execute the Army's [IAMD] modernization strategy,” adding that the program is on track to reach a production decision later this year. Warden also noted that success with the IBCS program and the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System puts the company on a path to contribute heavily to an anticipated “next-generation” program called Joint All-Domain Command and Control. JADC2 is expected to provide an information architecture across all service and domains of warfare. Northrop's IBCS development efforts are seen as a springboard into work it could do to develop JADC2, Todorov said. He added that the IBCS system in particular has gone through “tremendous advances,” as it has adapted to maturing and changing threats. One of the reasons the system has been able to quickly evolve is due to its designation by Congress — among just a few Defense Department programs — to adopt an agile software-development process that allows the system to be frequently updated with software upgrades or patches, as opposed to big software drops that potentially happen only once a year. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/07/31/after-covid-delay-high-stakes-test-of-armys-critical-battle-command-system-underway/

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  March 19, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Textron Aviation announces furlough of thousands of workers

  By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — Textron Aviation is furloughing more than 7,000 workers in the hopes of containing the spread of coronavirus, the company announced Wednesday. Textron Aviation mostly produces commercial business jets, turboprops and piston-engine aircraft through its Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker brands. However, it also produces a number of military-specific aircraft, such as the Beechcraft T-6 Texan trainer used for basic pilot training by the U.S. Air Force and the AT-6 Wolverine, a weaponized version of that aircraft, and the Scorpion jet. News of the furlough was first reported by The Wichita Eagle, which also detailed number of workers slated to lose work. Textron has declined to specify how many workers will be furloughed or the functional areas of the business that will be impacted. Textron Aviation spokeswoman Sarah White said support for contracts would move forward, though with few details. The Air Force on Monday awarded Textron Aviation a $70 million contract for two AT-6 planes, training and support. That aircraft is manufactured at its plant in Wichita, Kan. “We are abiding by the requirements established by the DoD and our partner nations, as well as the protocols implemented across U.S. and customer bases worldwide,” she said in a written statement to Defense News. “We will continue to support our Defense customers according to our funded contract requirements.” More generally speaking, the furlough “will allow us to do our part in mitigating and containing the spread of the COVID-19 through social distancing, while continuing to support our customers,” White said. The company is also “limiting large group meetings, increasing daily cleaning of its facilities, restricting travel, and cancelling our participation in several global meetings and events” in response to the pandemic. The furlough will last from March 23 until May 29, but each impacted employees will only lose four weeks of work, she said. https://www.defensenews.com/coronavirus/2020/03/18/textron-aviation-announces-furlough-of-thousands-of-workers

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  July 21, 2024 | International, C4ISR

  Taiwan’s provocative modernisation a gambit against China's intrusion - Army Technology

  Taiwan is upgrading its military in response to provocations from China, with a specific emphasis on its Army, Air Force, and Navy.